England pacer Mark Wood has heaped praises on Rohit Sharma and has said it is difficult to bowl him regardless of the format. Rohit scored a match-winning century in the second innings of The Oval Test against England.
He has been in sensational form on this tour of England, where he has amassed 369 runs in eight innings. Thus, he has buried all the criticism about his potential to succeed in Test cricket while opening the innings.
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Mark Wood believes it is hard to bowl to Rohit Sharma in any format.
“Rohit Sharma is brilliant, he is tough to bowl at in any conditions. KL Rahul, I have been really impressed with him, he has left the bowl really well early on and played really solitary and when he gets in, he has played quite beautifully. The openers are two big wickets for us,” Wood told reporters in the virtual press conference.
“Then you have got (Cheteshwar) Pujara, (Virat) Kohli, I mean Kohli is one of the toughest players that I have bowled at in any format, so it is a world-class line-up, but if you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t believe you can get them out then there is no point in playing.”
India have taken an unassailable lead of 2-1 in the five-match series with the last Test to be played in Manchester from September 10.
Wood mentioned England have got plans and backup plans for every batsman in the opposition’s rank.
“We believe in ourselves as a group, we have plans for each batsman, we have backup plans, sometimes it works, sometimes they don’t. But when you have such a good sort of batting line up to come up against, you have to be right on the money, otherwise, they punish you,” said Wood.
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The 31-year-old has also praised the Indian fast bowlers and said he has immense respect for them.
“I think, every team has quality pacers, this is national cricket, this is not (some) sort of school or club cricket. Every team has fantastic bowlers and I respect this Indian pace attack immensely,” said Wood.
“I think it is highly skilled, it has got pace, they are all slightly different, with different angles, different actions. It is great to watch, I mean, it is not great to face as a batsman, but as an opposition player, you can get a huge respect.
“And (Mohammed) Shami, I have been hugely impressed with him throughout the series. His skill level, his accuracy and it has been tough for batsmen on both sides. It is a good bowling line up but we recognise that we will have to combat as best we can,” he further added.
